The Blood Medium
by sorahart
Summary: Six months after abandoning the Syndicate, Hei and Yin are on the run and flying under the radar. But when a powerful contractor called Narcissus sets forth mass genocide toward dolls, the duo are driven out of hiding to uncover his motives and stop him. Meanwhile, something more sinister lurks in the shadows... a mysterious doll with powers as terrifying as her past. Pre-season 2.
1. A Game of Roulette Played in the Rain

**Note: This story takes place six months after the season one finale, before the start of season two.**

Chapter One: A Debt Paid in Blood by a Heart Drowned in Rain

Rain pattered the concrete, layering sheets of water atop one another at an astounding pace. The ever-shifting surface of the running water exploded beneath the blood-soaked man's every step as he sprinted through the stormy night air, terror reflecting behind his frantic eyes. _"Oshita…" _a low, soothing whisper swept through the night, like wind calling his name. _"Why are you running from me, Oshita?"_

"Stay the hell away from me!" Oshita screamed, whirling around in a panicked frenzy as he attempted to find the source of the disembodied whisper. He fired off several shots from his pistol, sending bullets careening into the darkness. "You hear me, freak?"

_"Oshita…" _the whisper seemed close, as though his hidden assailant were whispering directly into his ear. Oshita spun around, firing off shots as he sprinted through the downpour. _"Oshita…" _the voice felt the same no matter how far he ran… as though it were in his own head.

Oshita tripped over a jag in the concrete as he stepped underneath an overpass. He flung his hand out to try and stop his fall, to no avail. On the way down his palm streaked blood across the wall of the overpass support. Oshita crashed hard onto the wet pavement, and rolled over with a groan. Out the corner of his eye, he could see the streak of blood on the wall begin to bubble, writhing and convulsing as though something were boiling it. Then, the blood began to push itself away from the wall, coagulating into the form of a jagged, demonic hand with clawed fingers. The hand outstretched toward Oshita, dripping crimson along the way. The drops of the blood turned to clouds upon hitting the sheets of rainwater atop the concrete. These clouds began to spread, leeching outward like cancer spreading through a body; slow, ominous, unstoppable.

The red quickly shrouded around Oshita's ankles, pressing onward until the pavement beneath his feet was no longer visible; Oshita was standing in a shallow pool of red, surrounded by nothing but blood. The hand had almost reached Oshita's neck by the time he garnered the strength of will to force his body upwards. Screaming in horror, he threw himself against the far wall, struggling with shaking hands to aim his gun at the hand. When he pulled the trigger, the gun did not fire… and red seeped from the barrel. Crimson began to ooze from the firearm's every crevice, and with each drop that fill, the fear in Oshita's heart was magnified. "What the hell?" He cried, throwing the gun against the wall. The red around his ankles began to crawl upward, leeching up his legs. It burned against his flesh. "Get away from me!" He shrieked, kicking his legs violently. The blood continued to climb, until eventually the burning was so intense that Oshita fell to his knees. The whisper resounded in the depths of his skull; _"Oshita…"_

A girl suddenly appeared before him, with pale skin and crimson red eyes to match her hair. She wore a pristine red and black dress, standing above Oshita with a strange sense of dominance. She grinned, and blood began to stream from her eyes, as though she were crying red. "What do you want?" Oshita pleaded, "I'll pay you anything! Name a figure, I'll double it! Please!"

"Oh Oshita," the girl spoke, her voice barely above a whisper, yet impossibly loud within Oshita's mind. "You've spent your life with the Yakuza. You should know that the greatest of debts…" suddenly, the crimson hand rocketed out from the wall and sunk its claws into Oshita's chest, plunging with terrifying ease through his flesh and bone. He could feel the hand clench around his heart, every beat pounding against its grasp. The girl's grin widened into a smile, "…are paid in blood."

With that, the hand clenched. Oshita's vision turned red as blood welled up in his eyes, and he vomited fountains of red. Every blood vessel in his body simultaneously ruptured, and streams of crimson burst outward from his skin, seeping onto the ground around him. The hand jerked back, and the last thing that Oshita saw through a sheen of red was his own crushed heart, and behind it the girl's sinister smile. And then Oshita slipped into the cold embrace of death, lying in a mangled, withered heap amidst a pool of red. And the girl was gone.

…**.**

"The forensics crew puts estimated time of death somewhere between midnight and two a.m., they'll have a more exact estimate once we get him to the lab for more in-depth study," Saito explained as Chief Kirihara arrived on the scene. He wore a bright yellow poncho to shield him from the pouring rain, and had large bags beneath his bloodshot eyes.

"You look rough," Kirihara stated as she walked past him, umbrella in hand.

"Haven't been getting much sleep lately," Saito lowered his gaze. "Not since the whole Hell's Gate debacle a few months ago."

Chief Kirihara said nothing in response to this, only stopping for a brief moment before continuing on toward the body underneath the overpass. Misake Kirihara had been on the force a long time, and she had seen a lot of gruesome crime scenes over the course of her career. But this one definitely topped the list; the walls had been painted with blood, and the corpse lay in a crumpled heap, its flesh mangled and torn, red streaked ears, nose and mouth. His eyes had welled up with so much blood that they had completely burst, leaving nothing but gory sockets oozing pus. His chest had been ripped open, and his heart removed entirely. "Who was he?"

"We've identified him as Oshita Nakazawa," Kono answered, his fiery hair damp from the rain in a way that complemented his sullen expression.

"Nakazawa?" Kirihara asked in surprise, "You mean the Nakazawa Crime Family?"

"Yup. Rumor has it that since the old Nakazawa boss got whacked earlier this year, this guy has taken over the gang. They're closely affiliated with Yakuza. Apparently, Oshita has been making some pretty big power plays, pissed off a lot of people in the criminal underworld. Frankly, I'm surprised it took him this long to wind up dead."

"This wasn't a mere mob killing," Kirihara shook her head. "Gangsters shoot their enemies. This…" she looked around at the gruesome scene surrounding them, "This was something else entirely."

"Since the Hell's Gate fiasco, more and more people are learning about contractors. Think maybe some gangsters hired one to off this guy?" Saito suggested.

"Once forensics gives us a more exact time of death, I'll check with Astronomics and see if any stars were active. In the meantime, I want you two to get out and search for leads. Talk to anyone and everyone who may have been affiliated with Oshita Nakazawa, find out who wanted him dead. I'm sure it'll be quite a list."

"On it Chief," Saito nodded, heading toward his car. Kono breathed a deep sigh, preparing to follow.

"Man," he groaned, looking up at the black clouds which filled the sky. "Is this rain ever going to let up?"

"Maybe it's our penance," Saito said as the door of his police car clicked open.

"What does that mean?" Kono raised an eyebrow.

"Maybe contractors aren't the only ones with a price to pay," Saito shrugged. "Maybe the rain is our penance for all those nice days we took for granted."

"What, are you getting religious on me Saito?" Kono frowned, "Where's all this philosophical crap coming from lately? Ever since the Hell's Gate incident you've been a real downer."

Saito remained silent, a distant look in his tired eyes. Finally, he climbed into his car. "Let's get going, Kono. We have work to do."

"Whatever you say."

…

Hei laid his head back, trying his best to find some sort of comfort while stowed away in the back of a coal train. Since he and Yin betrayed the Syndicate six months prior, they had been relentlessly pursued by Syndicate forces intending to silence them. They had to travel under the radar, never drawing attention to themselves.

"Hei," Yin's voice cut through his thoughts, pulling him into an immediate state of calm alertness.

"What is it?"

Wordlessly, Yin extended her arm, pointing to a steel girder on the wall of the train. A shimmering specter resided there, watching them. "Damn it," Hei grunted, instinctively reaching for his knife. "I didn't think they would find us here," he immediately moved for a hatch to exit the train, when he felt Yin's hand gently grasp his shoulder.

"You don't understand, Hei." Yin spoke in a tone devoid of feeling, yet a faint sense of pleading existed behind her empty, motionless eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"It's not an enemy," Yin turned to face the specter. "She's asking for help."

Confused, Hei asked, "Who is?"

"She says her name is Mary now. She did not have a name when we met her."

"Yin, what are you talking about?"

"She and Kenji need your help."

"Kenji?" Hei's eyes momentarily widened as he began to understand. "Kenji Sakurai? The one who you and I helped escape the Nakazawa gang with that doll?"

"Yes. They need help. She and Kenji are in danger."

"Tell her that's not our business. Kenji knew the risks when he ran away with her, and we can't afford to-"

"Hei…" Yin turned around to face him, a glimmer of sadness within her lifeless gaze. "She says we're in danger too."

"Ugh…" Hei stopped, caught off guard. "What does that mean, Yin?"

"Kenji will explain everything if we meet him in Tokyo."

"He's back in Tokyo? Why would he-" Hei stopped again, dropping his gaze to the floor. He then looked at the specter, the shimmering orb of blue watching over them. "Tell her to lead us there."

…**.**

"You sure this is the place?" Kono inquired, leaned against his squad car. He looked up at the ramen shop they had parked outside of, stating, "It looks pretty innocuous."

"That's the point. It's a pretty secretive operation," Saito replied, taking a step toward the shop. "According to that thug I questioned downtown, the guy who runs this ramen shop is Totetsu Miasoki, a drug dealer closely affiliated with the Nakazawa group. He uses the ramen shop as a front for getting his product to buyers and making it seem like a legit business. He had a deal going with Oshita Nakazawa; the Nakazawa family would provide protection for the shop, and in exchange, Oshita got a cut of the profits from the drug racket."

"So why are we making it such a high priority to investigate this guy? Nakazawa had his hooks into plenty of different dealers."

"Because Totetsu Miasoki recently cut the Nakazawa group off. He stopped giving them their cut of the money without any warning… as you can imagine, that didn't sit too well with Oshita."

"You're thinking Miasoki might have had Oshita killed before he got offed himself?"

"I'm thinking it's a good place to start," Saito nodded. The duo approached the ramen shop casually, immediately scanning the place for any potential threats. They found nothing eye catching except for a young woman behind the counter.

"Hello miss," Kono leaned against the counter, wearing the most charming smile he could muster.

"Hey there, what can I get for you?" She asked.

"Actually, I was hoping you could direct my partner and I toward your boss, a Mr. Totetsu Miasoki."

"Oh…" the girl paused a moment, then said, "Mr. Miasoki is out right now, but if you want, you could leave your numbers and I'll have him call you when he gets back."

"He isn't here, huh?" Saito glanced out the window. "Strange, considering his car is sitting in the parking lot."

Kono flashed his badge at the girl, stating, "How about you tell us the truth so we don't have to arrest you for obstruction of justice, alright? I'd hate to have to mugshot such a pretty face."

"She ain't tellin' you nothing!" A voice erupted from behind the counter, and with it the sound of a gunshot. A look of horror flashed across the girl's face as blood began to pool on her apron, and she fell to the floor.

"Get down!" Saito took cover behind the counter, drawing his weapon. He was immediately followed by Kono. The shooter fired off a few more rounds before fleeing out the back door.

"I hate it when they run," Kono sighed, hopping over the counter and chasing after the criminal. He stopped at the doorway and called, "Saito! You coming?"

"You're faster than I am; you pursue him on foot, I'll go around and try to corner him with the car."

With a nod, Kono took off through the back alleyway after Totetsu. The two soon veered onto the sidewalk, and Totetsu fired shots into the crowd ahead to clear his path as everyone scattered in a panicked frenzy. He then arched his arm back and attempted to shoot at Kono, who ducked behind a roadside bench and returned fire. One of Kono's shots pierced the back of Totetsu's knee, dropping him momentarily, but the criminal quickly forced himself to chug forward, at a much slower pace.

When it became obvious that he couldn't escape, Totetsu grabbed a little girl off the sidewalk and took her hostage, turning to face Kono with his gun to her head. "Drop your weapon and put your hands in the air, or I blow this kid's head off right in front of her mother!" Totetsu threatened.

"We've already got you on one murder charge, for that girl in the diner… and we have suspicions about another death relating to you. Do you _really _want to add a child to the list of charges, Totetsu?"

"Put the gun on the ground, damn it!" Totetsu fired a shot into the girl's foot, inciting the child to scream in agony. "I ain't screwing around!"

"Okay, okay, alright…" Kono carefully placed his weapon on the sidewalk. "See? I'm unarmed. Now just let the kid go, and-"

"Not a chance, cop." Totetsu quickly pointed his gun at Kono and prepared to fire, when suddenly a tire iron collided with the back of his head, knocking him unconscious. The criminal fell to the ground, revealing Saito behind him, tire iron in hand.

"You couldn't have gotten here a little bit sooner?" Kono breathed a sigh of relief.

Saito cuffed the unconscious Totetsu and said, "I'll load this dirt bag in the car. You call an ambulance for the kid, so she can get that bullet out of her foot."

"Saito…"

"What?"

Kono stared at his partner for a long moment, amazed at the seriousness in his manner, as well as his lack of empathy. Saito had never been this intense before. "Nothing. Forget about it. I'll get to work on that ambulance."

…

"You murdered your employee. You ran from police. You injured an innocent child," Misake Kirihara leaned forward in the chair of the interrogation room, sitting across from Totetsu Miasoki. "You're going to prison no matter what, Totetsu. But if you just tell me the truth, and help me out with my investigation… I might be able to shave a couple of years off your sentence. I just need you to be honest with me, do you understand that?"

"I'm an open book, officer," Totetsu grinned, reaching a hand out toward her. "I'm just hoping maybe you'll open something for me…" In response, Misake smashed his hand into the table, feeling bone crack beneath her strike. He reeled back in agony, shouting, "You crazy bitch!"

"You disgust me," Misake sighed, withdrawing a file. "You know what else disgusts me?" She flipped open the file in front of him, revealing the gruesome pictures from the crime scene beneath the overpass.

"Geesh, sure musta' been this guy's time of the month…"

"You don't recognize him?" Misake frowned, "Maybe this will help," she withdrew another photo, this one a picture of Oshita Nakazawa before his death.

"Wait a minute, you mean…" Totetsu smiled, planting his pointer finger on the photograph. "You mean to tell me that this is Oshita's body in that bloodbath?"

"That surprises you?"

"Eh, not really," Totetsu shrugged, leaning back in his chair. "Oshita had more than his share of enemies."

"Including you?"

"No. I had no beef with Oshita or the Nakazawa gang."

"Then why did you stop giving them their cut of the drug money? That was your agreement, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, yeah… it was a good deal, too. Oshita ran a great protection racket. But once I found out about the business he was in… heh, I decided it just wasn't worth it, ya know? I wanted to separate myself from the Nakazawa crowd as fast as I could before the wrong person caught wind of our deal and thought I was involved in… that business…"

"What business do you mean, exactly?"

"You mean you ain't figured that out yet?" Totetsu smiled, and began laughing.

"Figured out what? What was Oshita involved with that made you pull out of the deal?"

"Oshita was a player in the Doll Trade."

"The what?"

"The Doll Trade. Ya' know… people buyin' and sellin' dolls under the table."

"Dolls?" Misake's eyes widened, "You're talking about passive mediums?"

"Sure, whatever technical term ya' wanna' put on it. A lot of these big-shot crime guys, they like buyin' dolls."

"For what?"

"Sex slaves, mostly. They'll do whatever ya' tell em' and ya' never even have to listen to em' talk! One hell of a deal if ya' ask me. But I don't like to get involved."

"And why is that?"

"Because of the guy in charge of it all, the king-of-kings in the Doll Trade…" Totetsu leaned forward, eyes darting back and forth. "They call him Narcissus."

"Narcissus? The demigod in Greek mythology?"

"I guess," Totetsu shrugged. "All I know is that's what they call him. Rumor has it he's one of them freaks… what do you call em', the ones with the weirdo super powers…"

"Contractors?"

"Yeah! A contractor. He runs the Doll Trade inside and out, and everybody's scared of him. Anybody who steps outta' line with him doesn't live real long, if ya' catch my drift. He's got so much influence in the underworld that even the Syndicate won't touch him. When I heard that Oshita and the Nakazawa gang were involved, I decided to cut ties, quick and clean. The last thing I need is some freak with powers knockin' at my door; I get enough of that with bill collectors and God-freaks."

"I'm going to need all of the information you have on this Narcissus character. And while you're at it, you can-" Misake was interrupted by cell phone ringing. With a sigh, she stood up and answered quickly; "Kirihara."

_"Chief, this is Dr. Shoto, head of the forensics department… we've finished the autopsy on that body you sent in this morning, and, well… you might want to see these results for yourself."_

…

"Thank you so much for coming here, Li…" Kenji Sakurai poured a glass of wine for his guests, which he had obtained with a fake name while ordering room service from the dumpy, rat-infested motel that he had taken up refuge in while in Tokyo.

"What are you doing here Kenji? You left the country because it wasn't safe. Why would you come back?" Hei questioned as Kenji set the glass before him.

"Nowhere is safe, Li."

"I'm serious. It was stupid of you to come back here. Do you think your gang has forgotten you ripped them off?"

Kenji took a drink straight from the bottle, swallowing a large gulp before putting it down and looking Hei in the eyes. "She's a doll too, isn't she?" He nodded toward the kitchen, where Yin and Mary were waiting.

"Yes."

"That's why I had to come back, Li… she's in danger. And so are you."

"Danger from what?"

"Have you ever heard the name Narcissus?"

"Not since the Greek mythology unit in grade school."

"Hm…" Kenji took another drink from the bottle. "Narcissus is the codename taken by a powerful contractor here in Tokyo. For years, he's been in charge of the Doll Trade, kidnapping and trafficking dolls all over the world for profit… he was behind the scenes when my gang tried to sell Mary," he glanced into the kitchen again. "She picked that name herself, you know. I asked her what she wanted her name to be, and she picked Mary. And people say dolls have no will of their own. Idiots."

"Where is all of this going, Kenji?"

"Something has Narcissus scared. I don't know what, I don't know why… but he's begun exterminating the product," Kenji looked up to meet Hei's gaze again. "He's having all of the dolls in his possession killed, Li. Every single one. And he's sending out assassins to butcher the dolls that he's already sold in the past, along with the buyers. And he has teams out tracking down other dolls, slaughtering them… he's committing genocide, Li."

"What?" Hei's eyes widened in surprise. "He's trying to exterminate dolls?"

"Yeah. Mary and I were attacked in Borneo, then again in the Phillipines… this guy, Narcissus… he's put out an order for the extinction of dolls. And he's already filling up graveyards with them. Nobody has any idea why, apparently the order just came out of nowhere one day, and anybody who questioned it wound up dead."

"That doesn't make any sense. Why would he want to kill off his entire revenue stream? If he's a contractor, then his only interest is in doing what benefits him. How would wiping out dolls possibly be beneficial?"

"I told you, I don't have a clue what his motives are… no one does, but he won't rest until they're all dead. That's why I had to warn you, Li… because they'll come for Yin soon enough."

"Alright…" Hei got to his feet, "How can I find him?"

"Wait… find who?"

"Narcissus."

"No!" Kenji jumped up and grabbed Hei by the shoulders. "Li, that's insanity! I wanted to warn you so that you and Yin could go into hiding, not so that you could go after him! It would be a suicide mission, you have no idea how powerful this guy really is, his influence reaches everywhere!"

"Kenji… how can I track him down?"

"Dude, I'm not helping you get yourself killed. No way."

"Kenji, you once told me that if you find something precious enough to you that you're willing to risk your life to protect it, then you can do anything. Do you still believe that?"

"Ugh…" Kenji froze, dropping his gaze. "Yeah, I do. But Li-"

"Then help me find him."

"…talk to Iorek Iverson. He's an ex Russian intelligence agent who now owns the port where the Nakazawa gang gets all of its shipments for weapons, drugs, and I'm guessing dolls as well. He would be able to tell you where those shipments come in from. Keep climbing up that grapevine and you'll eventually reach the top."

"Thank you, Kenji." Hei turned to the kitchen and said, "Yin, let's get going."

"Wait a minute, Li! I'm going with you!" Kenji protested.

"No. You and Mary need to lay low and not draw attention to yourselves until you hear from me again. And Kenji…"

"What is it?"

"Don't call me Li anymore. That was a cover, and it's been blown."

…

Misake Kirihara arrived at autopsy shortly after finishing her interrogation, and found an anxious Dr. Shoto awaiting her. Dr. Shoto was a young woman, not even thirty yet, but she'd proven herself to be a rather brilliant mind in the field of forensic study and was already considered one of the best examiners in the country. "This had better be good," Kirihara warned.

"Believe me chief, you'll be glad I called you here to see this yourself," Dr. Shoto approached the examination table which held the body of Oshita Nakazawa. Carefully, she removed the sheet concealing the corpse, revealing the mutilation in all of its glory. "You see, chief, it didn't take long to realize that every single blood vessel in this man's body had ruptured and burst. From the looks of things, they all did so simultaneously. I was puzzled as to what might cause that, so I thought I would check the veins for any residual signs of some sort of bloodborn toxin… take a look at this."

Dr. Shoto turned over the body's forearm to reveal the underside of its wrist, which she had cut open with a scalpel. "Notice anything wrong here?"

"Where are the veins?" Misake questioned.

"That's just it, chief. It's like all of his veins were either ripped out of body or somehow dissolved. Same with the arteries… they're just _gone_. Something forced all of the blood to expel from his body. It's as if his body somehow rejected its own circulatory system."

"Interesting…" Misake pondered this information for a moment, and then when on to ask, "Have you pinpointed a more exact time of death?"

"Yes," Dr. Shoto nodded. "Considering the amount of decomposition and bacterial activity, factoring in the heavy presence of moisture due to the rainstorm, I'd put the time of death somewhere between one-thirty and two a.m., approximately a half hour window."

"Thank you, Dr. Shoto."

"Wait, Misake…"

"What is it?"

"Don't be mad, but… well, I was curious about what could have done this to a person, so I got in touch with Astronomics before I called you… they said that there were no stars active during that time frame."

"Ugh…" Misake's eyes widened, "None?"

"None at all," Dr. Shoto shook her head. "I don't know what killed this man, chief Kirihara. But whatever it was… it wasn't a contractor."

**...**

Four dolls stood in chains, lined up in a row along the edge of a wooden dock. Rain poured down around them as they stood still, lifeless, emotionless. Iorek Iverson, the owner of the port, approached the dolls with an authoritative step, accompanied by two armed men. "Are you sure about this boss…?" One of the men questioned.

"Our orders come directly from Narcissus. He wants us to kill every doll that arrives in a shipment, without question," Iorek answered, taking a long drag on his cigarette.

"But what for? What's the point?"

"If you want to be the one who steps up to question Narcissus, then be my guest. Just hope that this dramatic rain continues, so that it can add a somber mood to your funeral." Iorek scoffed, blowing a puff of smoke into the man's face.

"No, sir. Of course not. I'm just curious, that's all."

"Let's get this over with, eh?" Iorek sighed, "I would like to get out of this rain before I catch cold."

The two men nodded, and raised their guns, preparing to open fire on the dolls. Just as one of the henchmen was about to pull the trigger, a wire launched from the shadows and wrapped around his neck, jerking him backward and dragging him into the darkness. An electric surge then resounded, followed by the man's dying scream.

"What the hell was that?" The second gunman shouted.

"Don't ask, just shoot it!" Iorek commanded.

The gunman fired off a volley of shots into the darkness where the cable had launched from, until his clip was emptied. "Think I got him, boss?"

"Go check, you idiot!"

Hesitantly, the gunman reloaded his clip and then walked into the darkened alley between storehouses, searching for any sign of life. "Itchy trigger finger, huh?" A harsh voice spoke from behind him, and the gunman spun around just in time to feel a hand clasp around his forehead, and then briefly realize the sensation of a lethal electric shock surging through his body, before his heart gave out and his body collapsed.

Iorek heard the man scream, and took another drag on his cigarette. "Very well then."

A red flare appeared in his eyes, and a blue cloak of synchrotron radiation enveloped his body. He held his hands outward, and launched a wave of compressed air so strong that it toppled over both storehouses, leveling the area before him. There was silence for a long moment, and Iorek expelled a brief sigh of relief. "I figured you would probably be a contractor," Hei's voice suddenly sliced through the air like a knife. Iorek whipped around to see the black reaper planted atop a light post at the side of the boardwalk. "The Russian intelligence agency hires a lot of you."

"So, you are the infamous black reaper?" Iorek grinned, expelling a puff of smoke. "I was wondering when you and I would finally cross paths."

Hei looked to the ruined heap where the storehouses had previously been, and said, "That was quite a display. How does a powerful contractor such as yourself go from Russian intelligence service to running a dock for a bunch of gangsters?"

"It's what Narcissus commands," Iorek smiled. "You're lucky I'm about to kill you, black reaper. It will spare you the suffering he would bring if you attempted to face him. Now…" Iorek became encased by the cloak of blue radiation again; "No more talk."

"Agreed," Hei grasped his knife. Iorek fired forth a concentrated ball of compressed air. Hei leapt from the lamp post moments before it burst into shards under the powerful air pressure. Hei fired his knife on the wire, sending the blade careening toward Iorek. He swung his pistol and knocked the blade off course, causing it to stick into the wooden boardwalk. Iorek glanced behind him and saw Yin's specter floating on the water's surface, and grinned.

"I had heard you were fond of dolls, black reaper. Let us see just how much you care for them." Iorek pushed one of the captive dolls off of the dock and into the water, and the chains around it pulled the others in as well. Due to the weight of the chains, all four dolls quickly sunk below the water's surface. After a moment's hesitation, Hei leapt past Iorek and dove into the water after them. Iorek laughed, "Pathetic."

Beneath the water's surface, Hei peered through the murky depths and spotted the fast-fading shadows of the four dolls as they sunk ever deeper. He swam after them, pushing through the depths with all his strength. After pressing on for nearly a minute, Hei came within reach of one of the chains holding the dolls. He gripped the chain tightly, and then with his free hand, reached for his belt. His knife and the wire attached to it were still impaled in the boardwalk above. Hei pressed the trigger on his belt to retract the wire, and immediately it began to reel in, pulling him and the dolls upward toward the surface.

Immediately after breaking into the cool night air, Hei took a long breathe of oxygen before hoisting himself, and then the dolls, up onto the dock. Iorek was nowhere in sight. Hei pressed hard on the chests of each doll, helping them to expel the water out of their lungs and start breathing in oxygen. He then pried his knife out of the wood, and used it to slash apart the chains binding the dolls, setting them free.

Once this had been accomplished, he signaled Yin on his COM Link. "Yin, did you see where Iorek went?"

_"He escaped on a large boat, headed south," _she responded.

Hei frowned, unable to think of a way to pursue his target. Then, as if on cue, the roar of an engine filled the air. "Hey dude!" A speed boat veered in front of the dock and came to a halt, piloted by Kenjie Sakurai. "Need a ride? This is _so _much better than my bike!"

"I told you to lay low."

"Hey man, don't blame me," Kenji smiled and pointed to Mary, "It was her idea."

…

Iorek Iverson collapsed inside cabin within his boat, his face turning various hues of purple and blue. His hands began shaking, lungs screaming for oxygen, as he sat on his knees holding his breath. He held his position there for several minutes, his mind turning foggy, swimming through the haze, when he heard his electronic security lock short out, and the hatch into the cabin torn open behind him.

Iorek finally exhaled, frantically sucking in gulps of breath. Wobbling onto his feet, he chuckled between gasps, "It's the price of my contract, you know. I hold my breath. It was just a few seconds at first, but each time I pay my price, the duration grows longer… I'm somewhere around six minutes now. Soon enough it will kill me." He turned around to face the black reaper, knife at his side. Iorek took a shaky step backward, against the far wall of the cabin. "But before that happens… I shall add the black reaper's death to my list of achievements."

He flung his hands forward, unleashing a wave of air. Hei leapt to the floor as the ball of air punched straight through the wall of the boat, and water began pouring inside. Iorek moved to launch another ball of air, and Hei moved to dodge it, barely evading its strike as it plunged another hole in the wall. Hei landed atop a wooden dresser and launched his cable-knife into the floor of the cabin as it rapidly filled with water, and sent a wave of electricity through the wire, electrocuting the water at Iorek's feet. With a cry of pain, Iorek fell to the floor. "That should have been lethal…" he breathed, "You pulled your punch. Why?"

"I need information," Hei approached Iorek slowly, meticulously, the water rising to his knees. "Quickly."

"Heh, heh, heh…" Iorek forced himself onto his knees. "Where I come from, we have a game… it's become somewhat of a namesake for my country... we call it roulette." Iorek began to suck all the air in the cabin into a compressed ball in his hands. "It's a suicide gamble. I suppose, that's what this is… in a way…"

Hei felt the air began to leave his lungs, sucked away from his body and into the sphere of compression held by Iorek. Gasping, he said, "I'll steal away all of the oxygen in the vicinity… and we'll see who suffocates first, black reaper."

Hei fell to his knees, feeling his lungs pound in his chest, screaming for sustenance. There was no air left in the cabin, all of it drained away, like a vacuum. His vision becoming blurry, mind enveloped in a haze as brain cells rapidly died off, Hei reached out a shaking hand for the hilt of his blade, submerged under the rising water, and with the last of his strength, ripped it from the floor. Immediately, the blade was sucked into the vacuum of air, flinging toward the ball of compression.

Blood splattered across Hei's mask, clouding up the water around them, as Iorek was blasted against the wall of the cabin, knife buried in his chest. Oxygen began to fill the room again, and Hei gasped pleadingly, sucking in as much of it as he could. "Y-you… cheated… b-black reaper…" Iorek coughed.

Once he had enough strength, Hei got back on his feet, the water level now above his waist. He grabbed Iorek by the throat and demanded, "Where is Narcissus? How do I find him?"

Iorek suddenly gasped, as though he'd been stabbed a second time. Hei tightened his grip, shouting, "Don't play games with me! Where is he?" A red glimmer caught Hei's eye, and he looked down to see an odd materializing over the blood from Iorek's wound… like a red specter. "What…?"

Suddenly, Iorek's veins erupted out of his flesh, spraying fountains of blood in every direction. Blood shot from his ears, nose and mouth, and soon after his eyes burst, spewing forth streams of red. Hei took a step back, confused and shocked, when Iorek's head began to crane, contorting, breaking his own neck as his head tilted on a bizarre and unnatural angle. When he spoke, his voice was not his own; the baritone, Russian-accented man was gone, replaced by that of a woman, with a sweet, soothing voice. It sounded distant, like an echo. _"The black reaper…" _it cooed, _"I've heard a lot about you. Yin thinks very highly of you."_

Hei gasped, eyes wide with surprise. "What are you-"

_"Be quiet and listen, black reaper. After all, if I understand human physiology correctly… you're short on time."_

Hei looked down to see the water now level with his chest. He could not stay in the cabin much longer. The voice continued to speak through Iorek; _"I admire your intentions, truly. And that's why I have decided that if you don't get in my way, I won't kill you. Of course, you'll need to hand over Yin without a fuss. I need a her, after all."_

"What is this?" He retracted the cable on his knife, pulling it out of Iorek's chest, and raised it above the surface of the water, pointing it threateningly. "You'd better hurry up and explain yourself."

_"My, how adorable…" _A powerful force came over Hei, as if his body was suddenly no longer in his control, and he was slammed violently against the wall, arms stretched out spread-eagle. The water was at his neck. The voice was pounding inside his skull now, as if it were somehow screaming inside of his own head. _"I will not tolerate your interference in my plans."_

"Yin-" Hei began to speak, and immediately found himself cut off.

_"Yin belongs to me. If you interfere, you will die. You have been warned." _

The force then vanished, and Hei and Iorek both fell beneath the water's surface. Forcing himself upward, Hei found the ladder leading up to the hatch, and crawled onto the deck of the ship, which had now dipped below the water. Hei attempted to swim upward, lungs weak. He had nearly made it when the last of his strength disappeared, water rushed into his lungs, and he began to lose control, drifting away from the surface.

Kenji's hand plunged after him, gripping his arm and hoisting him upward. "I've got you buddy," Kenji said as Hei broke the water's surface. He pulled Hei onto the speed boat, and helped him force the water out of his lungs. "Dude, what the hell happened down there?"

"Y-Yin…" Hei coughed, "Where's Yin?"

"She's standing right over there," Kenji pointed to the back end of the boat. "She's just staring off into the distance. I tried talking to her but-"

"Move." Hei pushed past him, and saw Yin standing at the back of the boat, facing a red specter in the shape of an adult woman. Kenji couldn't see the specter, being only human. Hei put his hand on Yin's shoulder, pulling her away from the strange specter. "Yin, what is that?"

The specter disappeared almost immediately. Yin faced Hei, and after a moment of pregnant silence, she said, "I know where to find Narcissus."


	2. Spilling Blood in the Devil's Footsteps

Chapter Two: Spilling Blood in the Devil's Footsteps

"Did you hear there's going to be a lunar eclipse tomorrow?" Kanami Ishizaki spoke into the phone between drags on her cigarette, "I hope we'll be able to see it… this rain has to let up eventually, right? It's been, what, three days?"

_"Kanami, I'm working…" _Misaki Kirihara's voice responded through the speaker.

"Yeah, yeah…" Kanami rolled her eyes. "You're always working. You're going to take tomorrow night off and watch the eclipse with me, right?"

_"Ugh…"_

"Never mind. Just thought I'd try," Kanami shrugged.

_"I'm hanging up now. I'm in the middle of an investigation and-"_

"Oh! I almost forgot…" Kanami leaned forward; peering around the corner to make sure no one was eavesdropping. "BK201 was active last night."

_"What? Are you sure?"_

"Positive. His star was lighting up like a firecracker."

_"BK201 hasn't been active for months! Not since the Hell's Gate incident."_

"Yup. And, around the crux of his star's activity last night, another star fell… UB404. I doubt it's a coincidence."

_"Do we have any identification for UB404?"_

"Uh-huh. He is… _was_… a former Russian intelligence agent who went rogue, went by the name of Iorek Iverson. His ability was listed as Vacuum-Based Air Compression, which sounds like something off a Dyson infomercial to me."

_"Kanami, I need you to send me a chart of all UB404's astronomical activity since defecting from Russian intelligence."_

"It could take a while to get something like that together. What's this about, Misaki?"

_"I'll explain everything later, I promise. I just need the information as soon as you can get it to me." _

"Okay…" Kanami sighed, taking one last drag before extinguishing her cigarette. "Misaki, please be careful. It seems like every time we start digging into BK201, you run off and get yourself into danger. Why are you so obsessed with this guy anyway?" There was no response. "Misaki?"

Kanami looked at the screen on her phone to see a glaring **Call Ended **notification. "Seriously?" Kanami tossed the phone aside. "I swear, if I give myself wrinkles worrying about her…"

…

"What exactly did she tell you, Yin?" Hei spoke gently but with an unmasked sense of urgency. Rain tapped the window of Kenji's motel room, perpetuating a ghostly ambiance throughout the darkened dwelling.

"She said her name was Rose. She is a doll, but not like me. She's different," Yin recalled her encounter with the mysterious red specter the night before, eyes aimed at the floorboards.

"Different how?"

"She didn't say."

"What else did she tell you?"

"She gave directions. How to find Narcissus."

"Why?"

"I don't know."

"What were the directions she gave you?"

"She didn't give them to me." Yin then summoned her specter upon the small puddle of water on the floor which had resulted from a leaky roof. Ever since the battle at Hell's Gate, her specter had taken on the shape of her body, and seemed able to interact physically. Hei assumed this was part of the changes that Amber had explained the dolls, and contractors, were going through. Yin reached out her arm and pointed to the specter. "She put the directions there."

"What?" Hei looked to the looming blue figure, and spied a shimmering spec of red within its chest, right where a heart would have been. A piece of the red specter, planted inside of Yin's. "She put that there?"

"Yes. When we're ready, it will lead us to Narcissus."

"Did Rose tell you anything else, Yin?"

"Yes."

"What was it?"

"She made a promise."

"What kind of promise?" Hei watched Yin intently, waiting for an answer. She remained silent, unresponsive. He leaned forward, forcing her to meet his gaze. "Yin?"

"She promised your life, Hei. She promised that she wouldn't kill you."

Hei's eyes widened, caught off guard by this revelation. His mind wandered back to his encounter with the mysterious red specter on Iorek's boat, and the threat to not meddle in its plans. He looked back to Yin's specter, at the shimmering orb of red buried within the blue. "I don't trust her. We'll find Narcissus another way."

Hei got up and walked into the other room. Kenji was on the sofa, with Mary sleeping on his lap. Kenji ran a gentle hand through her hair. "Is Yin this cute when she sleeps?" He asked softly.

"Never looked," Hei approached the window, casting his gaze out onto the rain-soaked streets of Tokyo.

"You know, I had a dream last night… it was like real life, except everything was… better, you know? Mary and I were on a tropical beach somewhere, talking and laughing, and we didn't have anything to worry about. There was nobody out to get us, no danger lurking around every corner… just us and a world full of happiness. Do you ever have dreams like that, Hei?"

"No."

"Sometimes I wonder what her laugh really sounds like," Kenji eyed Mary. "I hear it in my dreams all the time… it's the most beautiful sound in the world there. But then I wake up, and she smiles, she talks back, but… she never laughs. I guess it's hard for dolls to express themselves in that sort of way. That's probably why everyone thinks they're these blank, emotionless beings… they have trouble expressing themselves, and nobody ever takes the time, or gives them the chance, to figure out how to show what they're feeling. I think Mary's getting closer though. Every day, it seems like she's developing a little bit more… does Yin ever laugh?"

There was a loud crunching noise, and Kenji whipped his head around to see that Hei had punched a deep crater into the steel radiator along the wall. His fist was shaking. "I'm sorry," he spoke barely above a whisper, head hung low.

"Um…" Kenji got on his feet slowly, careful to not wake Mary. "Don't worry about it dude… I shouldn't have asked so many dumb questions, I sort of-"

"The answer is no," Hei withdrew one of his knives, handing it to Kenji. "Yin doesn't laugh." He approached the door, stopping once his hand was on the knob. "I'm taking a walk. If anyone but me comes to this door, don't hesitate to use that knife."

…

"Kono! I'm glad I found you," Misaki Kirihara paced down the halls of the police station, her usual air of authority around her. She handed Kono the file that Kanami had sent her, recording all of UB404's activity since defecting from Russian intelligence. "I need you to cross-reference the activity in this file with any police reports pertaining to the Nakazawa gang over a period of the last six years. Search for any correlation between gang activity and this star's activity."

"What?" Kono stared at the file, measuring its thickness with his fingers. "Chief, that'll take hours!"

"Then you'd better get to work."

"But-" Kono prepared to protest, but saw the chief's piercing glare directed toward him and breathed a deep sigh. "Okay, chief. I'll get right on it."

As Kono disappeared down the hallway, Misaki's phone began buzzing. She answered quickly, "Kirihara."

_"Chief, you know that suspect we brought in yesterday, Totetsu Miasoki?" _Saito's voice came through the speaker.

"Yes. What about him?"

_"We have a bit of a problem…"_

…

"The moon shines bright and blood runs red, upon this night you'll all be dead!" Totetsu Miasoki shrieked; an inhuman, guttural sound as blood poured from his mouth with every word. He crawled frantically across the ceiling of his jail cell, spider-like in manner, his fingers driven so violently into the concrete that their tips had been reduced to bloody, swollen chunks of tissue.

"What the hell is going on here?" Chief Kirihara demanded, sprinting down the hallway to the front of the cell where Saito and two other officers were gathered.

"The warden insists that he just suddenly started shrieking and ripped off his jump suit. I was called to try and subdue the situation, but, well… he started asking for you."

"What?" Misaki gasped.

"He's been screaming your name for over an hour," the warden replied, leaned against the far wall. "That and some freaky rhyme."

"The sky is dark, the moon glows red… a crimson spark, more blood to shed…" Totetsu continued to mutter, scampering about the ceiling in a frenzied mania.

"My God…" Misaki took a deep breath. At the sound of her voice, Totetsu released a giddy squeal, and then began to turn his head downward. The sound of bone being crunched filled the air, as his neck was snapped by his own force, craning his gaze to view Misaki from the ceiling. At the sight of his face, Misaki felt the sudden urge to vomit. Totetsu's eyes had burst, and twin streams of blood poured down his face from the emptied sockets.

"Misaki!" He cried, seemingly elated.

"What the hell?" Saito shouted, turning away to avoid looking at the horrid creature before them. One of the police officers vomited into his helmet.

Trying her best to maintain composure, Misaki took a cautious, shaky the step forward and stammered, "T-Totetsu…?"

"Not anymore…" a distorted voice echoed from his crimson-oozing mouth. He suddenly sprung from the ceiling, latching on with terrifying force to the bars of his jail cell, head hanging limp at the side, slack jawed, his empty, gory eye sockets fixed on her. "This body is… otherwise occupied, for the moment."

Misaki swallowed hard, clenching her fists in a vain attempt to stop her hands from shaking. "What are you? What do you want?"

"What do I want?" Totetsu's open, bloody mouth contorted into a smile. "Justice."

"J-justice?" Misaki swallowed again, her heart pounding in her chest. "Care to elaborate?"

"The moon turns red, the oceans rise… the light is dead, adjust your eyes…"

Misaki put a careful hand on her firearm. "I'll ask again; who are you, and what exactly is your goal?"

"The Reckoning of the Red Rose is upon you. Humanity's reign is coming to a close. Sticking your nose where it doesn't belong will only quicken your end."

"Reckoning of the Red Rose? What are you-"

"Stay away from the Nakazawa case and enjoy your final days at the top of the food chain, Misaki Kirihara. If you are compliant, you may be spared destruction in order to serve the superior race."

"Superior race? You mean contractors?"

"Dolls." With that, Totetsu's mouth burst wide open, and he spewed out a fountain of blood, covering Misaki from head to toe. Reacting instantly, Misaki withdrew her gun and fired a shot right into Totetsu's forehead. He fell back, a circular hole punched through his skull. His body lay still, and Misaki breathed a relieved sigh. This relief quickly vanished, however, when Totetsu began to sit up, slowly. Head hanging ajar, a bullet hole in his skull, he again stared at Misaki with the hollow sockets which formerly held eyes, and began to laugh; a wild, manic laugher that seemed to resound within the depths of Misaki's own mind. The laugher continued for several minutes before Totetsu's chest ripped open, painting the jail cell red, and his body fell limp.

The blood coating the walls began to move, writhing and contorting. Slowly but surely, it coagulated into a singular form on the far wall of the cell; the image of a crescent moon. "What in God's name just happened here?" Saito gasped, pale and trembling.

Misaki's phone began to ring. She didn't even process the alert until its final ring, and then quickly fished it out of her pocket with shaking hands. "Ki… Kirihara…" she answered, voice weak and trembling.

_ "Chief? Is everything alright?" _Kono asked, his voice seeping through the speakers.

"What do you have for me, Kono?"

_"Um…I was just calling to let you know that I started cross-referencing those files like you requested, and there is definitely a connection between UB404 and the Nakazawa gang. He was active at the time of over half the major police reports involving Nakazawa activity, and-"_

"Thank you, Kono," Misaki hung up the call and took several more deep breathes. Finally regaining some manner of composure, she looked to Saito and said, "You handle things here. I need to go speak with someone."

…

Hei blew through his sixteenth bowl of stew, his hunger only barely satiated. As he added the emptied bowl to the pile beside him, the portly restaurant owner came into view. "Li Shenshung! When I heard from my kitchen staff how much food was being ordered, I _knew _it had to be you!" The man laughed, leaning over the counter to pat Hei on the back. "Where've you been? I haven't seen your face here in months!"

"I've been… traveling," Hei forced his best smile. It had been quite a while since he'd had to play the role of Li Shenshung, and his friendly demeanor was a bit rusty.

"Really? Where to?"

"Oh, you know… all over the place. I never stay anywhere for very long."

"Well I'm glad you stopped in. I thought I might go out of business without you coming in and cleaning me out every other day!"

"Well, I'm only in town for a little while, but I'll try to make it back here again before I leave."

"I appreciate it," the owner nodded, and then glanced out the window. "Some rain we're having, huh? Seems like it isn't ever gonna' let up."

"Yeah…" Hei glanced behind him, spotting two other people in the restaurant; a couple. The first was a tall, muscular man with a thick beard and a scar below his right eye. The other was a short woman with brown hair and a gentle complexion. They'd been watching Hei the entire time he was in the restaurant. He looked back to the owner and asked in a quiet tone of voice, "Do they come in here a lot?"

"Those two?" The owner furled his brow, thinking for a moment, and then shook his head. "Nope. Never seen them in here before. Why?"

"They didn't leave your waitress a tip," Hei stood up and fished some extra money out of his pocket. "Give her that to make up for it. She deserves it."

"Um… okay, thank you Li. I know she'll appreciate that."

Hei quickly left his seat and walked out the door. Without hesitation, the other two patrons followed him. They continued to shadow him as he navigated his way through the wet, crowded sidewalk and turned a corner into an unpopulated alleyway.

The bearded man and the brown haired woman followed him around the corner, to find that Hei was nowhere in sight. "Where the hell did he go?" The bearded man growled.

"More of Narcissus's lackeys, I take it?" Hei's cable fired from the eve above and wrapped around the bearded man's neck. A surge of electricity pulsed through the wire and dropped the bearded man to the ground. Hei then leapt from the eve and aimed a kick at the woman as she backed against the wall in panic.

Just as Hei was about to make contact with her, the bearded man's hand shot up from the ground and clenched his ankle. "What?" Hei gasped, amazed that the man was still alive after the fatal dose of electricity he sent down the wire.

The man flung Hei into the brick wall of the alley, sending a wave of pain through his body. Hei slumped to the floor, clutching his shoulder, which took the brunt of the impact. The bearded man towered above him, a crooked smile on his face, synchrotron radiation cloaking his body. "Nice move. I'd expect no less from the contractor who killed Iorek. But you see… there's a reason Narcissus chose me to hunt you down." The bearded man clenched his finger and pulled, stretching it several inches. "My power is to mimic the physical properties of rubber. Your electrical attacks are useless."

"Ugh, you talk too much Byron…" the girl stepped beside him, grinning maliciously. "Just hurry up and beat him to death. I'm excited to watch."

"Of course," Byron arched his elbow back and flung a powerful punch toward Hei. Hei swiftly evaded the blow, rolling to the side and clenching the lid off a garbage can. He leapt toward Byron and struck him in the head with the lid, but his bludgeoning instrument bounced off of his scalp with little to no effect. Byron punched Hei in the face; his beefy, rubbery arm delivering an impact equal to being hit with a twenty pound tire. Hei hit the ground, and his vision realigned from the blow just in time to see Byron rearing back for another punch. He plunged the garbage lid outward and used it as a shield, Byron's fist driving into the metal. Hei channeled a surge of electricity through the lid and managed to sizzle off a few of Byron's arm hairs, but Byron only chuckled, kicking Hei in the ribs and sending the black reaper tumbling across the concrete.

Byron loomed over Hei imperiously. "We have reason to believe that you are harboring two dolls. If you give up their location, we'll spare your life."

"A very rational proposal," Hei inched upright against the wall. "You're just like all the rest." Without another word, Hei pushed the button to retract his cable. While blocking Byron's punch, he had wound the cord around the handle of the trashcan lid. Now the wire came reeling in at high speed, pulling the lid with it, and the instrument struck Byron in the back of the knee, flipping the giant over onto the ground with a surprised howl.

Instantly, Hei got on his feed and latched behind the disoriented Byron, winding his cable tightly around his throat, and pressed the retract button, causing it to tighten enough to crush a man's neck. Byron's rubbery properties enabled him some defense, but he struggled for air, tugging in vain at the wire as he began to suffocate. Behind him, Hei whispered, "Let's see if rubber can choke."

Through gasped breathes, Byron called, "Y-Y-Yoshika!" Then, the dark haired girl jumped on Hei's back, digging her fingers into his scalp. Her eyes flared a bright red color, and an aura of synchrotron radiation manifested around her body. Suddenly, Hei felt excruciating pain within his skull as her consciousness started dipping into his brain, sifting through his mind. Crying out in agony, Hei struggled to force her off of him, slamming Yoshika into the brick wall behind him. He flung his head back and broke her nose, sending a spurt of blood over the wall. Hei thrashed again and managed to throw Yoshika to the ground. Immediately, his headache began to fade.

While Hei recovered, Byron ripped off the cable, and looked to Yoshika as she clutched her bleeding nose. "Did you get the information we wanted out of his mind?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "Can you finish him off?"

"Later, I've used too much of my power for now. Let's just go fulfill our main objective and get this over with."

The two enemy contractors ran off, fleeing the battlefield at a breakneck pace. Hei tried to pursue them, but his mind was still trying to straighten itself out after Yoshika's attack, and running was not yet an option for his impaired motor function. Falling to his knees, Hei took several long breathes before he spied a flicker of red out the corner of his eye. A red specter looming outward from the splatter of blood across the wall. "You again…" Hei wobbled onto his feet, clutching his injured shoulder. "Its Rose, isn't it?"

_"Yin did a fine job of relaying my message," _spoke the echoing, disembodied voice of a young woman.

"I don't know who you are or what you want, and I don't really care. Stay away from Yin, and stay away from me."

_"After all I've done for you, Hei? I practically handed you Narcissus. I placed the coordinates inside Yin's specter; simply allow it to lead the way."_

"And why should I trust you? Why would you give us his location so easily?"

_"I thought you didn't care about my motivations."_

Hei frowned, turning away from the specter. "I'm wasting my time here."

Suddenly, a powerful and unmoving force, much like the one that gripped him the night before, manifested over his body and Hei was violently slammed into the opposite wall, forced to face the specter. The voice was now sharper, more threatening, and echoed monstrously loud inside of Hei's own mind; _"Your time belongs to me, contractor, and I will dictate how you spend it."_

He caught sight of an eerie glow on the edges of his peripheral vision, and moved his gaze toward his wrist, where he saw a blue aura within his veins; like synchrotron radiation inside of his blood. "What…?"

_"Would you like to see my motivation, contractor? Do you wish to understand my goals? To know what drives me forward?"_

The rain was beginning to wash the blood from the opposite wall, smearing it down against the brick, and as the blood thinned and expanded, so did the specter, shifting from a concise figure into an amorphous blob. Then, all at once, the specter propelled forward and sunk into Hei's chest, melding into the beat of his heart. Hei's motor function was no longer his own; the specter conquered his circulatory system and spread rapidly into the rest of his body. He struggled with all his might, but his efforts proved futile. _"Don't be afraid," _the voice spoke within his mind, _"I won't kill you. That was my end of the bargain."_

"B-Bargin?" He choked out the words.

"_Ah, so Yin didn't tell you everything after all." _Hei began to walk, involuntarily, driven forth by his body that he no longer controlled. _"I'll show you my motivation, contractor. Then you can decide where your loyalties lie."_

…

Misaki Kirihara made her way down the halls of the maximum security prison, her pace in a constant state of flux with the waxing and waning of her state of mind. Driven by determination and impeded by fear, the two forces wrestled for dominance within her being. Yet with every step closer that she took toward the cell of her former boss, Yoshimitsu Horai, determination grew more powerful, and her pace quickened.

Horai had been Misaki's superior for many years. And during that time, he was an also a high-ranking member of the Syndicate, and had been secretly plotting the genocide of contractors with the destruction of Hell's Gate. With the help of BK201, Misaki had subdued and arrested Horai, and had not laid eyes on him since testifying at his trial. And yet there he sat, patiently awaiting his visitor. "Greetings, Misaki."

"Spare me the niceties. You never had any to offer during the years I spent working as your lapdog."

Horai leaned back in his chair. His beard had become grayer since she saw him last. "If you're coming to see me, then that can only mean something has made you desperate. I must say I'm curious as to what."

"A contractor involved in the Doll Trade. Goes by the name of Narcissus. I'm sure a man of your stature in the Syndicate would be familiar with him."

"Narcissus," Horai's eyes flashed. "The Syndicate kept tabs on him for a long time. We decided to turn a blind eye to his activities because he kept a large number of dolls subdued and under the public's radar; not to mention his dealings led us to hundreds, if not thousands of mobsters in need of disposing. Narcissus was the flame, and we allowed him to burn so that we could draw out all the criminal moths."

"I bet you didn't know he's orchestrated the mass murder of dolls. Not that you'd be opposed to that."

"Really now?" Horai seemed caught off guard. "His entire criminal empire was built upon the Doll Trade. Why would he want to kill off his revenue stream?"

"I was hoping you might have the answer to that."

"All I can say is, something big must have changed. The only thing I can imagine is that something's got Narcissus scared. He's killing off the evidence. But his power reaches so far into the underworld, I'm at a loss as to who could threaten him."

"What do you know about him personally?"

"Not much. We never got a firm grasp on his powers, although we believe it has something to do with the reflection of light particles. We never got anything clearer than that; nobody who ever saw his power lived to tell the tale. He's ruthless, and intelligent. He'll stop at nothing to defend his power and has no regard for human life whatsoever."

"Any idea where he might be hiding?"

"There are any number of safe houses that the Syndicate traced him to; he never stayed anywhere long. But there was one thing that all of his hideouts had in common…"

"What was that?"

"Light. Lots of windows, often stained-glass, plenty of ambiance. That's part of the reason why we speculated on his powers being light-based."

"Is there anything else you can tell me?"

"I think I've told you plenty."

"People are being slaughtered, Horai. Graveyards have been filled already."

"No, _dolls _are being slaughtered. How can you honestly call those soulless creatures _people_? Contractors, dolls, moratoriums… they aren't _human_, Misaki. They're monsters that should be put down. I thought you would understand that."

Misaki fought back the urge to protest; to tell him that he was wrong. She stopped, because she knew that no matter how hard she tried, she could never make him understand. Instead, she slipped back into her professional mindset. "One more question. Are you familiar with something called the Reckoning of the Red Rose?"

"That's just a myth. An urban legend."

"Enlighten me."

"Huh…" Horai sighed, taking a long, contemplative breath. "It's a ghost story that sprung up about nine years ago, close to a year from the time the gates first appeared, and the old stars were replaced with fake ones. They say there was a girl, her name changes depending on who's telling the story, but most commonly they call her Rose. She was born with a disease; that also changes depending on the storyteller. Sometimes its cancer, other times it's an immune deficiency, sometimes it's a bone condition… you know how these rumors spread, things get twisted and soon nobody knows what's true anymore. But regardless, the girl has a disease, and her family is poor, but they put what little money they had into trying to care for her. Then gates arrived and the stars vanished, and people began to change… this girl, Rose, was among them… she became a doll, lost all emotion, all memory, all sense of being. Her parents were furious, they'd put all their money and time into caring for this girl, and in the blink of eye she's just _gone_, an empty shell. And it drove them a little bit crazy. So her father decided he was going to use her to make that money back. They chained her in the basement, and started… selling her. People paid good money to spend time with Rose in that basement, for various reasons. Some wanted to live out sexual fantasies on a girl who couldn't say no, some wanted to get violence out of their system and beat on a girl who couldn't cry, occasionally you got a wacko who wanted to try experiments on her. Long story short, her parents made a fortune, at the expense of their daughter… her life became hell. Then, the story goes, one day Rose broke out of her chains. And she killed her parents, and ate their hearts. And she swore vengeance on humanity for what had happened to her, and that's the story. But again… it's just a tall tale."

"Are you certain of that?"

"Positive. The Syndicate investigated it thoroughly. If there was ever any truth to the story, it got lost in the paranoia and superstition. There's no evidence that such a girl ever existed, and even if she did, it's impossible for a doll to act on their own in such a manner. They don't have the will. The story is entirely fictional."

"Right…" Misaki stood up from her visitor chair. "That's all I needed to know. Oh, and Horai…"

"What?"

"BK201 could have killed you that night. He didn't. Remember that next time you say that contractors don't have souls."

She began to turn and leave, when Horai's voice called out behind her; "Kirihara, wait… there's one more thing, about Narcissus… its trivial, really, but its information nonetheless."

"What is it?"

"The Syndicate got a report from a reliable source inside the Doll Trade operation, a couple years back… they had an interesting piece of information on Narcissus. He suffers from hemophobia."

"Hemophobia?"

"The fear of blood."

…

Byron and Yoshiko stood outside the small, cheap motel where Kenji, Yin and Mary lay in hiding. "Are you sure this is the place?" Byron questioned.

"I plucked it straight from the reaper's mind," Yoshiko nodded.

"Not much to look at, is it?" Byron clenched a hand on his beard, and his face contorted with a brief flash of pain as he ripped a large chunk of hair out. Tossing the hair onto the ground he muttered, "What an irritating contract."

"You're one to talk," Yoshiko sighed, spinning a pinwheel with an annoyed expression on her face. "At least your price is quick. I have to stand around and spin this stupid pinwheel. I gave up on trying to find any rhyme or reason behind it a long time ago; all of its meaningless."

"Well…" Byron eyed the motel again. "We should get in and kill those dolls before the reaper comes backs. You ready?"

"Just a second…" Yoshiko gave the wheel one more spin, then tossed it over her shoulder. "Let's kill one each, okay?"

"Deal. What about the human who's in there with them?"

"He's fair game," Yoshiko shrugged. "We'll just see who he's stupid enough to attack first."

"I hope it's me," Byron cracked his knuckles. "I'm itching for a good kill."

…

Kirihara exited the prison, sorting out Horai's information in her mind, attempting to divine fact from fiction. Her hair matted down and soaked with rain, Misaki was so lost in thought that she failed to notice men following her, even as she turned into the parking garage and approached her car. It wasn't until she reached the door of her vehicle and in looked in the window, that she saw the reflection of a man sneaking up on her with a baseball bat. She quickly leapt to the side just moments before her window shattered under the strike, and spun around to flung a ferocious kick into her assailant's jaw. She then broke into a sprint, running toward the exit. A second man jumped out from behind a concrete support pillar and tackled her, sending the two of them crashing to the ground. Misaki's head smashed against the cold cement floor, drawing a single, thin stream of blood to trickle down her face. "Get off of me!" She struggled against the man, but his hold on her was solid, and the second man quickly approached and rammed a stun gun into her stomach, sending a debilitating shock throughout her body. Misaki immediately stopped fighting, subdued within the man's grip.

"Better clean that off," the one with the stun-gun spoke, wiping her face clean with a rag. "The boss doesn't like it when we bring captives to him all bloodied up. He's a civilized man."

As if on cue, a sleek, expensive white limousine rolled up in front of them. A tall, lean man in an expensive suit emerged from the passenger side, with well-kempt blonde hair, a reflecting pair of sunglasses shielding his eyes and a diamond studded cane in hand. "So, this is the nosey young officer I've been hearing so much about…" the man reached out and brushed a loose strand of hair off of Misaki's face. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, chief Kirihara. I'd make a formal introduction, but I'm sure that by this point, you don't really need to be told who I am, do you?"

"Narcisuss…" Misaki spoke weakly, yet with a stunning sense of confidence.

"Very good. She _is _a bright one," Narcissus smiled. "We're going to take you to my home for a little chat, chief Kirihara. There are a few things I'd like to work out between the two of us. Of course, that's under the condition that you don't make a fuss on the way there and force me to kill you. Does that sound good to you?"

Misaki fought back the urge to spit on his fancy suit, to tell him to go to hell, to stick it where the sun don't shine… she had to play it cool, no matter how much it sickened her. "Of course."

"Good. She is a bright one indeed," Narcissus motioned for his men to search her. After a quick pat-down, they found her firearm and pulled it out of her holster, handing it carefully to Narcissus. "Nasty things, guns. I'd appreciate it if you didn't bring one near me again, just for future reference. I'll let it slide this time, since we haven't yet gotten to know each other."

Narcissus stepped aside, and his men shoved Misaki into the limo, sitting on either side of her and restraining her hands. Narcissus took a seat in front of her as the limo drove off. "Now…" he removed his sunglasses, revealing a bright red flare within his eyes as a blanket of synchrotron radiation appeared. "Let's begin, shall we?"


End file.
